Ohio aims to curb chronic diseases

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2014 at 10:00 PM

If the state has its way, there will be fewer overweight Ohioans by 2020, fewer teens who smoke and more residents who exercise every day. Yesterday, state health officials released "Ohio's Plan to Prevent and Reduce Chronic Disease," which took more than a year to produce with input from more than 40 organizations.

If the state has its way, there will be fewer overweight Ohioans by 2020, fewer teens who smoke and more residents who exercise every day.

Yesterday, state health officials released “Ohio’s Plan to Prevent and Reduce Chronic Disease,” which took more than a year to produce with input from more than 40 organizations.

“We’re taking a very priority-driven, cross-cutting approach to how we look at chronic disease,” said Andy Wapner, chief medical officer at the Ohio Department of Health.

The plan outlines dozens of goals to “dramatically improve” the health of Ohio residents, Wapner said.

“I think that the point of (percentage goals) is, the state is coming together around a common set of outcomes that we’d like to achieve by 2020,” he said.

Officials said it costs Ohio more than $50 billion each year in treatment for chronic diseases and in lost productivity from work.

Physical inactivity, tobacco use and poor nutrition are targeted in the plan. So are increased screenings.

The plan also looks at ways that community organizations, schools and universities, employers, health-care systems and the government can “leverage resources” to make a difference.

That includes adopting smoke-free policies in public housing and on university campuses; promoting walking and bicycling to schools; increasing the number of farmers markets in low-income communities; and providing physical activity programs at worksites.

While some of the reduction goals might seem small, they show a commitment to coordination in order to make a difference, Wapner said.

“Even small changes in the prevalence of cigarette smoking ... has a significant difference in long-term health outcomes,” he said.

Robert Jennings, a spokesman for the department, said the plan was a collaboration of the public and private sectors.

Organizations that are participating in the Ohio Chronic Disease Collaborative include the American Cancer Society, local health departments, various universities, state and national health institutes and a number of businesses.

Helene Szczerba, chairwoman of the Healthy Ohio Business Council, said more businesses need to embrace the plan, which calls for health-conscious worksites.

Healthy workers mean lower health-care costs.

John Alduino of the American Cancer Society applauds the collaborative.

It “helps us bring together partners that wouldn’t necessarily be working together on these types of things,” he said.

The collaborative also gives public-health professionals hard metrics to meet and monitor together, said Siran Koroukian, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine.

“The plan isn’t owned by any one entity,” said Beth Tsvetkoff, executive director of the Ohio Alliance of YMCAs. “(That way) you accomplish so much more than people working on their own goals, kind of in a silo.”

To read the full report, visit www.healthy.ohio.gov/cdplan.

Will Drabold is a fellow in Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau.